Work, Labor

Interesting Fact

When Chinese writing was introduced to Japan, Japanese writers sometimes found that the imported characters did not fully cover concepts unique to Japanese life. So they created new characters called 国字 (こくじ), meaning “characters made in Japan.” 🇯🇵 Characters such as 働 (work), 峠 (mountain pass), 畑 (field), and 榊 (sacred tree) are famous examples. 働 is especially interesting because Japan combined 人 (person) and 動 (move) to create a character representing a person actively working.